Chosen One
by xmjcx
Summary: Bethyl AU. Sequel to 'Only One', where Beth and Daryl find themselves to be expecting a new addition to their little family. Rated M.
1. Chapter 1

**CHAPTER ONE: DINNER**

Beth was humming to herself as she crouched down and tugged on the door of the oven, her eyes scanning over the chicken that she had been cooking and checking that it looked to be thoroughly cooked. When she was satisfied that the food was ready, she reached up to the counter top to grab hold of an old oven mit and wrapped it over her hands before she took out the food and placed it on the counter top.

As Beth began to cut into the meat so that some of it was already sliced, she heard the familiar sound of Daryl's truck pulling into the driveway and she knew that it would only take him a minute or two to come into the house. Beth didn't always do this - playing the dutiful wife and having dinner ready and set on the table by the time that her husband was home could sometimes be impractical when she was still at the hospital when he arrived home or when she was completely exhausted due to the fact that her own shift had just finished a short while before his. On those days, it was practically impossible for Beth to be able to put in as much effort into making a decent meal for them both as she would like to, and those were usually the evenings that Daryl drove them to a local take-away and got them their unhealthy dose of junk food.

But then there were other times; times like tonight when Beth had been off from work all day and had spent the majority of her day playing along to that role, making sure that she cleaned their house top to bottom (how it could get _that_ untidy when it was just the two of them living there was beyond her) as well as preparing their evening meal. They may have been married for almost two years now, but that didn't necessarily mean that Beth didn't like to make an effort for her husband anymore.

Satisfied with her work, Beth left the chicken on the side to cool down for a moment whilst she busied herself by grabbing two plates from the cupboard and walking into the dining room with one in each hand. Just as Beth was setting the plates down on the dining room table, she heard Daryl's key twisting in the lock of the front door and then heard the tell-tale sound of the door creaking open and then closing loudly. She knew that Daryl would be untying the laces to his work boots inside their small porch area and that he would probably be wondering what the smell was. Unfortunately, her finding the time to cook meals like this for them both really was a rare occurrence and she knew that it would take her husband by surprise.

Beth hoped that he hadn't taken it upon himself to treat them both to something from a local take-away tonight.

Pushing that thought away and reminding herself that they could always store whatever leftovers that they had tonight in the fridge for lunch tomorrow or even dinner in the evening again, Beth bit down on her bottom lip and slipped back into the kitchen to grab the chicken just as Daryl entered the living room. When she re-appeared from the kitchen with the tray of chicken balancing in her hands that were once again covered by the oven mit, Beth found that her husband was stood hovering over the dining table, both of his brows knitted together in confusion until he saw her carrying their food. His expression relaxed somewhat, but he still looked incredibly curious.

"Hey," was all Beth said to him as she scooted past him so that she could place the hot tray of chicken down in the middle of the table.

Daryl had opened up his mouth and looked like he was about to say something back to her, but Beth didn't give him much of an opportunity to speak at all. Instead, she turned around to face him and stood up onto her tiptoes before she leaned forwards and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. That silenced him for a second and then before he could open his mouth again, Beth disappeared back into the kitchen.

Two dishes had already been filled with a mixture of potatoes and vegetables and Beth grabbed them both, discarding of her oven mit and balancing one bowl on each arm as she made her way back into the dining room. Apparently, Daryl had chosen to follow her into the kitchen and was standing in the doorway as she padded around the room, watching her actions with questioning eyes.

Beth wondered to herself whether it was really all that surprising for Daryl to see that she had prepared a meal like this for them, and it instantly made her feel guilty. Her childhood memories mostly consisted of her mama spending a lot of her time in the kitchen, cooking and baking for their family so that they always had fresh food.

Maybe she wasn't as good at this wife business as she initially thought that she was.

"Need a hand?" Daryl asked as she scooted past him, but Beth just smiled at him and shook her head.

"No, no," she insisted, turning her head over her shoulder as her light eyes danced around the kitchen whilst she spoke. "I'm pretty sure I've got everything, I - oh!"

Beth almost dropped the dishes from where they were balancing neatly in her arms when she realised what she was forgetting.

"Actually," she said, her tone a little sheepish as she turned to face him again. "Would you be able to bring in the lemonade? I left it in the fridge to chill."

Daryl immediately nodded his head at her in response to her question and moved himself to the side so that Beth could move past him in the kitchen doorway. Just as she was scooting her way into the dining room, Daryl caught her by surprise and grabbed at one of her actions, stilling her in her movements for a brief moment. Beth turned towards him and looked up at him with wide blue eyes and a kind smile that she mostly saved just for him and waited for him to say something.

For a long few moments it seemed as though Daryl was debating over his choice of words, and in the end he chose to let out a little sigh and simply lean forward to press a gentle kiss to her forehead. Beth didn't try and hide the bright smile that spread across her face as a result of the gesture.

It was times like these that reminded her that it really was always the little things that made Beth remember just how much she loved her husband.

Beth finished off placing down the two dishes onto the table next to the chicken whilst Daryl brought in the pitcher of lemonade that she had made earlier in the day. He was also balancing two tall glasses along with it and Beth thanked him for helping before he sat down, but Daryl shook his head at her in a dismissive manner.

"Ain't nothin'," he mumbled at her. "Hell, you did all the work."

A soft smile and a nod of the head was all the response that she gave him before Beth joined her husband at the table, grabbing her knife and fork and reaching out towards the chicken before Daryl managed to get chance to. He looked a little taken aback at her movements as she began to place some of the readily-cut chicken onto his place, but he composed himself after a short few seconds.

"How was your day?" Beth asked him.

Whilst Beth continued to place more pieces of chicken onto his plate, Daryl busied himself by heaping portions of potatoes and vegetables onto both of their plates, and Beth thought to herself about just how considerate he was towards her. Even after a long day of work, Daryl still had to make sure that he at least did _something_ to contribute to her efforts, and Beth thought that it was incredibly sweet. Even if he would argue that he was only plating up some of the vegetables that Beth had cooked herself, she still appreciated the small gesture much more than he probably realised.

After all, Beth knew of far too many of her friends who were married to lazy men, and Beth was more than certain that those men would have never even dreamed of offering to bring in the lemonade for their wives; never mind assist in plating up the food for them both, too.

"Was alright," Daryl said simply, shrugging his shoulders before he nudged Beth's plate - which was now overflowing with vegetables and mashed potatoes in a way that made her wonder exactly where on earth Daryl expected her to put her own meat - back towards her. "Bit busy. Ain't too sure why, though. S'not really a busy time o' year."

Beth nodded her head at that. Even after all this time of being with a mechanic, she didn't know much at all about cars, but she still tried her best to make an effort to chat with her husband about his line of work.

"Was there a lot of people with flat tires today?" Beth asked, biting back a smile at the memory.

Daryl smirked at that but shook his head no.

"Nah. Jus' this one guy," he told her as Beth began cutting some more chicken to put on her own plate. "You done much yourself?"

Beth shrugged her own shoulders - a trait that she had most definitely picked up from him - as she settled back into her chair. Beth was a lot shorter than Daryl and had to pull her chair impossibly close to the table so that she could reach, and in doing so she made her leg brush against his. The two of them always sat next to each other at the table, rarely ever across from one another, and Beth loved the sense of closeness that they had together in such a normal way. Sometimes, their relationship reminded her of the way that she had seen her parents behave with one another as she was growing up.

"Done a little bit of reading," Beth commented as she poured herself a glass of lemonade before passing the pitcher over to Daryl. "I've cleaned up a little bit, too."

Daryl nodded at that as he took a large bite of his food.

"I can tell," he said as he glanced around the dining room. He chewed on his chicken for a long moment before looking back down at his plate of food and then back up to Beth. "This is good," he told her, motioning towards the meat with his knife. "Real good."

Beth dipped her head slightly and blushed at his compliment before raising her fork and placing some chicken into her own mouth.

She had to admit that the chicken was pretty good.

"'S the occasion?" Daryl asked, and Beth thought to herself that this may have been the hardest that Daryl had ever tried in making an attempt to be casual when asking her a question. Usually, if Daryl wanted to know something, then he would just ask her outright. Her husband was not a man of subtly. Instead, he was very much straight-to-the-point, and Beth appreciated that about him.

So seeing him behave like this almost made her want to laugh, but the nervous feeling that swam around in her stomach at his question overcame that girlish desire to giggle at him. Nervousness was not something that Beth usually felt around Daryl - at least, not anymore, because she was so confident and comfortable around her husband and she knew that he felt the same around her, too. Still, Beth found herself shuffling a little awkwardly in her seat and taking a long gulp of her lemonade because her throat had suddenly became incredibly dry before she addressed his question.

For a brief moment, Beth wondered why it was that she even bothered trying to be like this sometimes; to be the wonderful, dutiful housewife who dotes on her husband and makes sure everything is ready and perfect for him. In all honesty, it wasn't as though she was disappointed - that would never be Beth, _could_ never be Beth because she was always too busy with her own job, making her own money to be able to be like that all the time for him. More than that, it just reminded her of exactly how observant her husband really was. He could see right through her no matter what, and there was absolutely no way that she could hide anything from those deep blue eyes.

Truthfully, Beth had been worrying about this conversation all day and had debated long and hard over the different ways in which the two of them could tackle this.

In the end, Beth had decided that food would probably (most definitely) be the best route to take.

Secure was definitely a word that Beth would use to describe her marriage and she was not at all worried in the slightest that Daryl would run away from her when things got tough. If anything, Daryl had developed a tendency to run _to_ her whenever things got a little bumpy. There had been more than just a few times when Daryl had been pushed out of his comfort zone with her, but he was always loyal and good and strong. Beth admired him for being all of those things, and all of the more things that he was, too. They may have both still been learning more about each other, but Beth was still more than confident enough with their marriage to _know_ that under no circumstances would her husband run.

Still, that fact only made this topic of conversation a little bit less nerve-wracking than it already was, even though Beth thought to herself that Daryl probably already had a hunch about where exactly this was going.

"Oh," Beth started, shaking her head. "Nothin' too special."

She tried her hardest to sound very casual and nonchalant as she cut into some more of her chicken, but it couldn't have worked very well because Daryl arched a brow at her expectantly.

At his knowing look, Beth cleared her throat and shuffled in her seat for what had to be the tenth time in as many minutes before she spoke up, deciding that it would probably be best for her to literally just grab the bull by the horns and spit it out instead of dragging this whole thing on any longer and working Daryl up into a frenzy of panic and worry.

After all, they both knew that Daryl was anything but the most patient person in the world.

(He was trying, Beth would give him that, and he had gotten much better over time, but that didn't necessarily mean that he was a saint, either.)

Beth inhaled a deep breath before she looked at her husband straight in the eyes and delivered the news that she was certain he just had to already know by now.

"I'm pregnant."


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO: BOOKS & SECRETS**

They decided not to tell anyone for the time being.

Well, if he was being honest with himself, it had been Beth who made the decision not to tell anyone, not him.

His wife had given him clear instructions not to tell anyone yet. She said that it was too early for anyone to know because even though her pregnancy had already been confirmed by the doctor at their appointment yesterday, Beth was still adamant that they needed to wait until they had gone to their first ultrasound appointment and had their first scan before they told anyone about their news. In all honesty, Daryl probably wouldn't have told anyone anyway; and he didn't want to think too much about why Beth wouldn't want to tell people of a while, even though he was pretty certain that he had a good idea about it.

It was difficult to push those negative thoughts away, but Daryl tried his best not to dwell too much on them for now and instead tried his hardest to focus on the day when the two of them did get to go to their first ultrasound appointment. In all honesty, Daryl didn't know too much about them, and pretty much everything he did know was based on films and bad TV shows that he didn't really pay much attention to, anyway. Beth had informed him that they would be able to see the baby and maybe even hear the heartbeat for the first time, and once they had done that, then they would be ready to tell their friends and family the good news.

Gossip had never really interested Daryl Dixon anyway; an in all honesty, he wasn't exactly sure who it was that Beth was expecting him to tell in the first place. Probably Rick, considering they were best friends, or maybe Merle since they were brother's. Hell, maybe even Glenn; because even though he still didn't really enjoy having Maggie as a sister-in-law, her boyfriend was alright and seemed nice enough. Crazy for even going near Maggie with a barge pole, but nice enough all the same.

Still, Daryl hadn't thought much about telling people and wasn't planning on it full stop anyway; even if Beth wouldn't have asked him not to, he wouldn't have opened his mouth about the news. After all, he figured that word of Beth's pregnancy would spread around everyone pretty quickly - any news at all somehow managed to in this damned town - and once Beth had told one person, then everyone else within a ten mile radius would definitely know before long (probably within the hour).

By then, Daryl probably wouldn't even have to tell a single soul: everyone around him would already know from someone else, and that would be that.

Fatherhood was not something that Daryl had entertained the thought of before Beth came into his life. Will Dixon had been a pretty shitty excuse of a father himself and even though Daryl knew that he would never lay a hand on his own kid in that way, he also knew that no matter what, he was still a Dixon. Daryl wasn't sure that Dixon's were ever really cut out to be parents; except maybe for Beth, but she wasn't really a Dixon at heart, just by title. Daryl had never really been good at much in his life other than working with his hands; and even though he didn't know much about being a dad, he was pretty sure that it didn't really involve working with your hands at all, so Daryl doubted that he would be very good at it.

Unlike her husband, Beth was absolutely convinced that Daryl would be a decent father to their child - and more. The young woman had told him as much before the two of them were even married, and she had said it a lot more frequently know that they actually were married, and impossibly more now that they were actually expecting. Daryl didn't understand how she could _"just know"_ those sorts of things, but apparently, she did. After all; his experience with children was limited strictly to Carl and Sophia, and his experience with actual _babies_ was even more limited to just Judith. Even at that, he had never really done much with Judith - it was Beth who had babysat the tot from a young age, not Daryl, and he was pretty clueless when it came to the idea of actually taking care of her.

Holding the baby? Sure, he could do that.

Playing with the baby and entertaining her for a little while? Daryl supposed he could manage that for a bit, too.

Daryl even reckoned that he wouldn't be all that bad at feeding Judith if there was nobody else but him around to do it, although he had a feeling it would probably get a little messy. But things like changing her nappy and changing her clothes and calming her down when she was upset, things like bathing her and getting her to burp and getting her to settle when she woke up in the middle of the night?

Daryl didn't even know where he would start.

Judith wasn't a baby anymore - hell, he wasn't even sure that they could really consider her a toddler, either - so Daryl couldn't exactly just ask Rick whether he could borrow her for a few hours and practice on her so that he got an idea of what he needed to learn. Even if Judith was still a baby, Daryl was pretty sure that Rick would be suspicious about why on earth Daryl Dixon of all people suddenly wanted to learn more about babies, and he would probably start asking way too many questions and figure out his real motives and then he would end up going against Beth's instructions not to tell anybody.

It was on that thought that Daryl found himself browsing the shelves of the local bookstore, staring directly at the many different paperbacks that decorated the pregnancy section. Beth's gentle instructions not to tell anyone had been very clear and rang loudly in his mind, so Daryl was going out of his way to try and be as careful as possible that nobody that he knew was around to spot him there and get a glimpse of what it was that he was looking at.

Daryl could just picture it now: Rick or Michonne or Carol or Rosita walking past him in the store, and there would be absolutely no way in hell that he would be able to make up a good enough excuse for why on earth he would be looking at pregnancy books.

And part of him wished that Carol _was_ there right now because that woman seemed to know exactly what she was doing when it came to books. But the last thing that he wanted to do was go against his wife's wishes about not telling anyone, so Daryl coped and struggled by himself in the book store.

Better yet, he wished that Beth was there to help him find something because she would probably know what to look for, too; but his wife was unfortunately busy with work and Daryl had agreed to do some overtime at the garage this week, meaning that today was his only day off and so it was his only opportunity to visit the store for at least another week or so.

In the end, Daryl gave up on his attempt at flicking through the books and decided to just grab a random selection of paperbacks - some light, some heavy - and hoped to God that none of them contained too many graphic diagrams for his liking. Daryl headed straight to the counter to pay for them and was instantly relieved when the woman who served him was someone that he didn't even recognise; but then he was even more relieved when it seemed that she didn't recognise him, either.

 _Thank God for new people._

Daryl rushed out of the store as quickly as he could and didn't bother to look back as he made his way towards his truck, thanking his lucky stars that he didn't bump into anyone that knew either him or Beth in town, either.

Apparently, luck was on his side that day; and Daryl just hoped that it was a sign of things to come.

* * *

It wasn't often at all that Daryl came into the office.

In all honesty, he could probably count the number of times that he had entered the room when he wasn't coming in to see Beth or bring Beth some food or to have sex with Beth on one hand.

Besides, he didn't even _like_ calling this room an 'office'. The word sounded so cliche and reminded him of the dingy, run-down office at work that he avoided as much as he possibly could because all it reminded him of was phone calls and annoying customers and paperwork. But Beth had always called the room her office - no, _their_ office - and the name had sort of just stuck in the end, and no matter how much he didn't like it, Daryl still couldn't help himself but call it that - even to himself.

Almost as soon as Daryl had arrived home, he had darted up the stairs of the house and bounded his way into the room. He had strolled right up to the desk and turned the paper bag that he was carrying upside down, messily emptying the contents of it across the desk and watching in delight as his recent purchases spread out over the wooden surface. Daryl had made himself comfortable in the computer chair that rested there and had nudged Beth's laptop towards one side so that he had more room before he grabbed the book that was closest to him, opening it up at the first page and resisting the strong urge to flick through it aimlessly.

Daryl couldn't be sure about just how long he had sat there for, reading through those books; but it must have been a good few hours because he was still there by the time that Beth arrived home from work. Daryl was nowhere near finished with them - he counted them out and realised that he bought seven, and he had only read through two - but he reasoned with himself that they were pretty useful and informative, even if they were thick as hell and a little bit repetitive.

"Daryl?"

Considering the fact that Daryl had heard Beth's car pull up in the driveway and had even heard her closing the front door behind her on her way in, he had thought that he wouldn't have been caught off guard by her arrival. It seemed as though he must have left the door to the office open behind him because Daryl knew that he would have definitely heard her opening it (Beth was never really good at being quiet, even when she tried really hard) and he wouldn't have jumped in surprise at the sound of her voice.

Beth edged her way closer towards her husband as he span around in the chair, surprise and curiosity written all over her face as she peered down at the books that were littered across the desk and then back at the one in Daryl's hand. He lowered the book into his lap as Beth stood beside him, a gentle smile playing over her lips as she towered over the selection and picked one of the books up that Daryl had yet to read.

"Where did you get these from?" Beth asked him as she turned the book over so that she could read the words on the back cover.

Daryl shrugged his shoulders as he folded over the top corner of the page that he had been reading before she arrived home.

"The bookstore," he grunted, and Beth nodded as she placed the book back down on the desk.

"Today?" she asked, and Daryl nodded his own head at her as he closed the book in his hands.

Beth didn't ask him anything else about it and shuffled slightly so that she was a little bit closer to him before moving so that she was lowering herself down onto his lap. Without warning, Beth took the book from his hands and placed it onto the desk with the rest of the others. Daryl wrapped his arms lazily around his wife's waist whilst Beth placed her own two around his neck, tugging at the bottom of his hairline as she smiled up at him.

"I love you, you know," Beth told him before leaning in close and bumping her nose against his affectionately.

Daryl captured Beth's lips in a quick kiss before pulling back slightly and looking over her face with a gentle expression.

"Love you too," he said, and Beth ginned triumphantly before she cupped his cheeks and kissed him again.

In all honesty, Daryl didn't know exactly what it was that he had done to put his wife in such a good mood, but he didn't bother to ask Beth, either. So long as he could carry on putting a smile on her pretty face, Daryl knew that he could live and die a happy man.


	3. Chapter 3

**CHAPTER THREE: GRANDPARENTS**

It just so happened that when the time finally came to share her happy news, it was much easier for Beth to tell her mama that she was pregnant than it had been to tell her husband.

Honestly, Beth couldn't help but feel guilty about that; but she put it down to the fact that Daryl had mentioned to her on several occasions in their time together that he had never really put much thought into whether or not he wanted children until he met Beth, whereas her mother had always told her from a very young age that she couldn't wait until Beth gave her grandchildren.

Even though Beth truly believed that Daryl did want to start a family with her and she was certain that he was happy that she was pregnant, it still slightly unnerved her to know that her husband hadn't necessarily planned on being a father all his life the way that she had planned on being a mother.

Sometimes, Beth worried to herself that she was pushing Daryl into a lifestyle that he really didn't want; backing him into a corner and giving him not other option but to agree with her, even if it was something that he disagreed with or was uncertain of. After all, Daryl _did_ tell her (a lot) that he couldn't ever say no to her. And whilst some women might have dreamed that their husbands would always agree with them on everything, Beth couldn't help but wonder whether it truly was a good thing or not. The last thing that she wanted to do was force him into something that he didn't want and that he would eventually regret.

But whenever she was thinking like that - working herself up into a state of guilt and paranoia - Beth just reminded herself that she was married to _Daryl Dixon._ If that man didn't want to do something, then he wouldn't do it: simple.

From what she could remember, Annette had been mentioning having grandchildren since Beth was old enough to understand what having children meant, and her mama had been not-so-subtly hinting at the prospect of them even before Beth and Daryl's wedding. And even though Maggie and Shawn were both years older than Beth and both in long-term relationships, too - Maggie still with Glenn and Shawn having been dating Amy since the two of them met at the wedding - neither of them were really looking to properly settle down with their other halves anytime soon, and that meant that Beth was the easiest target for her mother to pester about grandbabies.

Because of that, Beth really wasn't at all nervous about telling her mama that she was pregnant, and Annette had been just as pleased as her youngest child had expected that she would be. That morning, Daryl had accompanied Beth to the hospital (where they had luckily managed to avoid most of her colleagues whilst waiting for their appointment) and they'd had their very first ultrasound so to confirm the pregnancy. After checking over the dates of Beth's last period and then taking some measurements of the baby, the radiologist had informed the pair that he estimated Beth to be somewhere around ten weeks pregnant.

The scan had been the first time in a long time that Beth had seen her husband behaving so nervously, but he seemed to calm dramatically when they were finally presented with the opportunity to see their baby for the first time on the monitor. The pair of them had been mostly in awe at the sight and hadn't said a word to each other as they looked wide-eyed at the grainy black and white image, but both had let out relieved sighs and smiled at one another when the doctor pointed out the small (but very prominent) heartbeat on the screen, and he had also allowed them to listen to it for themselves.

Unfortunately, Daryl had to return to work for the rest of the afternoon after the appointment and had dropped Beth off at the farmhouse so that she could meet with her mama and daddy and tell them the good news. The radiologist had printed off several scan pictures for them and tucked them neatly inside a little wallet, and Beth had taken one to give to her parents, leaving the others in the car with Daryl.

"I can't believe it," Annette said for what had to have been the tenth time in half an hour.

One of the older woman's hands was covering her mouth which had been hanging open in shock since her daughter had broken the news of her pregnancy. The other hand was clutching at the scan picture that Beth had given to her to keep, and since Beth had first handed it over to her mama shortly before, Annette's eyes had never strayed far away from it.

Hershel and Beth had been perched at the kitchen table since she had arrived, but once Annette had been told the news, she had jumped onto her feet and had taken to pacing around the floor non-stop. Both Hershel and Beth had been watching her walk around the room for a long while, and her daddy offered her a knowing look every time that Annette stopped in her tracks for a brief moment and then started up with her pacing once again. Beth tried to muffle her laughter as best that she could, not wanting to embarrass her mama too much.

And in all honesty, Beth understood her mother's behaviour - even if her pacing did seem slightly crazy. After all, Beth and Daryl had known about the pregnancy for several weeks now and so had been given that time to adjust to the news, but Beth remembered just how excited she had been when she first saw the results of her pregnancy test. That memory allowed her to definitely be able to forgive her mama for acting so crazily due to how enthusiastic she was about the whole situation.

"How are you copin', dear?" Annette asked, her light eyes finally looking up to meet Beth's from across the kitchen. "Are you doin' okay? Sickness gettin' you down at all?"

"Not really," Beth commented as she watched her mama make her way across the room in the direction of the fridge. "I've only actually thrown up a handful of times. Apparently, I'm real lucky for it; just actually feelin' sick as opposed to throwin' up everywhere."

Annette nodded her head in understanding of her daughter's words as she busied herself with pinning the scan photograph up on the center or the fridge with one of her many fridge magnets. Beth couldn't help but smile at the proud gesture, knowing in her heart that her mama would make an excellent grandmother.

Beth was chuckling as she spoke and her mother turned around to beam at her youngest daughter for a long moment before he made her way back towards the table, sitting down alongside her husband and Beth.

"Yes, you are," Annette told her in a matter-of-fact tone. "I was terribly sick in my pregnancies; right the way through, too, not just at the beginning. Near enough threw up at least once a day."

Beth grimaced at that.

"Guess I am lucky," the younger woman mumbled, tugging on the ends of her hair as she thought on to herself for a moment. "It's been a while since I've actually last been sick, but the queasiness is still there a lot. 'Specially if I smell somethin' really strong. It's gettin' better, though, an' I'm hopin' that soon, I won't even feel sick at all."

"I'll cross my fingers for you, Bethy," Hershel said once he had taken a long sip of his drink and gently placed his cup onto the coaster. "An' I'll cross my toes for Daryl, too."

Both of the women laughed at that, and Beth shook her head playfully at her smiling father.

"How is Daryl?" Annette asked, her features showing a brief flash of worry and concern as she thought on about her son-in-law. "How is he copin' with all of this?"

Beth shrugged her shoulders at her mama.

"Oh, he's doin' just fine," Beth told her honestly. "I reckon' I'm much more nervous than he is right now."

"Is that so?" Hershel asked, his tone sounding more than a little amused. Beth could only smile at him as she nodded her head up and down.

"Sure is," she told her father. "You know Daryl, though. He's always so calm about everythin'."

Beth paused for a moment, a small smile creeping onto her face.

"He did go out an' buy some pregnancy books from the bookstore in town almost straight after I told him the news, though, an' he's been readin' them near enough every day since."

Annette sighed happily at that, a lazy smile spreading across her face and warming her features so they were more relieved than concerned.

"How sweet of him," the older woman said. "Pregnancy isn't easy for the other person in the relationship, too. People usually just forget how tough it can be on the father's. I think male nerves are all 'cause of the pressure - there's just so much of it on their shoulders, tryna look out for the woman an' the baby," she continued, her tone thoughtful. "You'll have to try your best to take it easy on him."

Hershel raised a brow at that.

"Like you did on me?" he asked his wife, who smirked at him in response.

"Hush, you," she said, shaking her head from side to side. "This isn't about us, it's about _Beth."_

Hershel looked as though he was trying to appear offended at his wife's disregard for him, but Beth knew otherwise and giggle quietly to herself.

"Now, sweetheart," Annette said, returning her attention back to her daughter. "Have you started thinking about names?"


	4. Chapter 4

**CHAPTER FOUR: HOLDING BACK**

Unfortunately for Daryl, the pregnancy books that he had purchased from the store just several weeks before contained more than just a handful of unpleasant and very detailed diagrams.

Daryl couldn't help but wonder what had possessed the author's of these books to fill them with so many graphic images. As far as Daryl was concerned, nobody walking the surface of the earth needed to know half of the things that the books were pointing out by using those diagrams unless they were a doctor or a midwife; and Daryl figured that if said person was indeed a doctor or a midwife, then surely they would be turning towards an accredited medical textbook for that sort of information, not a book aimed at giving women (and in some cases - very much like his own - men) a greater insight into the stages of pregnancy.

"Wow. That looks interesting."

Daryl had heard Beth as she stepped into the office and make her way over towards where he was sitting in the computer chair at the wooden desk, but Daryl had made no effort in an attempt of physically acknowledging his wife's presence. Instead, he had still been focusing pretty much all of his attention on the words that scattered the pages of the current book that he had been reading and had tried to busy himself by concentrating on those words whilst ignoring the rather large and intricate diagram of a vagina that was positioned in the center of the two pages that he was currently reading.

Or, well; _trying_ to read.

As much as Daryl would enjoy nothing more than skipping over to the next page so that he could avoid having to look at the image for another second longer, he also decided in his mind that it would make him seem like some kid, all worked up and awkward just because of a damn diagram. That thought alone made Daryl decide to simply suck it up, reasoning with himself that he didn't want to miss reading anything that was important or that would end up being of some sort of significant value to him simply because he would rather skip over the drawing of a fucking vagina.

Before he knew what she was doing, Beth's arms were wrapping around his neck from behind whilst she bend her upper body down slightly so that her chin was resting on his shoulder. Daryl noted that Beth was still in her scrubs and he could smell the very distinct scent that he could only ever describe as being 'the hospital' upon her skin and all in her hair.

He never knew how to explain that damn smell to everyone, but whenever he said it, people seemed to understand exactly what he meant. Well, everyone except Beth. It was a mixture of strong cleaning products, old patients, hand gel and cheap food, and it wasn't necessarily unpleasant - just really, really distinctive.

"It is," he grumbled back to her in response to her statement, and Beth giggled in response to his words before she leaned closer and pressed a light kiss to his neck.

"I'm going to go and get a shower," Beth informed him as she unwrapped her arms from around his upper body and took a few steps backwards from he remained sat in the computer chair.

Daryl mumbled out an _"okay"_ at her in response before he attempted to return his attention back towards the book that was still sat in his hands, and it took him a few more seconds to realise that he was still yet to hear Beth leave the room. When she finally cleared her throat quite audibly in an attempt to grab his attention, Daryl swiveled himself around in the desk chair so that he was looking directly at her.

A confused expression decorated his features as he stared at her.

Beth was stood leaning in the doorway; one of her hands resting on the doorknob, the other holding tightly onto the door frame so that her body was kept upright. At some point on her very brief journey from being stood at the desk behind Daryl to being at the door, Beth had released her hair from it's high ponytail and she was chewing on her bottom lip, too.

A mischievous smirk spread across her lips when Daryl raised a brow at her expectantly.

 _Well?_

The question that he asked her was silent, completely non-verbal; but after years of practice, Beth understood what Daryl was saying to her loud and clear.

"Don't you wanna join me?"

* * *

During their time together, there had been plenty of occasions where Daryl had ended up taking showers with Beth. In fact, there had probably been more occasions than he could remember, let alone count. And although Daryl had absolutely no business trying to predict the future - even he could admit to himself that he would probably be pretty damn bad at doing that - but he was fairly certain that this shower would not be the last shower that he took with Beth, either.

But still.

It was _different_ this time.

It was different because his wife was pregnant now, carrying his child in her stomach. Holding himself back was proving to be more of a challenge than Daryl originally thought that it would end up being, though, as Beth was pretty persistent in her efforts - offering him devilish smiles and biting down on her bottom lip in a way that she just knew would drive him absolutely crazy.

It was only a matter of seconds of Daryl stepping into the shower behind her slender frame that Beth took the opportunity to spin around on the spot so that the two of them were face-to-face, wrapping her arms around his neck so that their naked bodies pressed together whilst she tugged him under the warm spray of the water; wiggling herself against him in an attempt to create some delicious friction between the pair of them.

And Daryl would be damned if Beth didn't turn him on and _hell,_ he wanted her. He wanted her so damn badly. Especially when she stepped up onto her toes and pressed her lips firmly against his, wasting no time at all to push her tongue into his mouth, grinding it against his. Daryl groaned as one of her hands snaked away from where it was interlocked with her other at the back of his neck and she trailed it slowly down his chest, briefly tugging against some of the hairs there until she began her exploration of his body again. Soon, her delicate fingers were finally brushing against where he was hot and hard and -

Daryl's deep blue eyes flew open and he grabbed at Beth's wrist before she could make any further move to grab at him. He pulled her hand away from him ever so slightly so that her fingers were out of reaching distance from him; even if he was painfully hard, and even if he did want her badly - so, so badly.

His wife's own light eyes fluttered open gradually and she looked up at him with an expression of utter confusion; her brows knitted together and eyes slightly narrowed, her lips - which were all red and swollen from their passionate kisses - were parted, too, and her head was tilted slightly towards one side, her wet hair dangling over her chest and down her back.

 _What?_

There it was again, that silent communication that they had mastered between them a long time ago. Beth could read Daryl better than anyone else that he knew, and sometimes it seemed like she knew more about him than he did. That thought alone was equally scary and exciting all at the same time, although it probably would have frightened him more if he hadn't been able to read her just as well as she could him.

Daryl stared into her soft eyes for a long few moments, his tight grip on her wrist never wavering as he attempted to convey everything that he was thinking and feeling over to her simply by using his eyes.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work like it usually did, because Beth wanted to know for definite what exactly it was that he was thinking before she took this issue any further.

"Tell me," she murmured, droplets of water streaking down her face as she spoke, voice barely audible over the powerful sound of the pump of their shower.

Naturally, Daryl breathed out a heavy and very reluctant sigh before he ran his free hand through his dampened hair.

"Don't wanna hurt you, girl," he said, voice low.

Beth's eyes narrowed at that. It was what she had been expecting him to say; he knew from the lack of surprise on her features, knew from the understanding way she was looking at him. Daryl couldn't be certain when exactly it was that his girl - his _wife -_ had mastered the art of reading his mind, but it didn't bother him as much as it probably should have done.

"You won't," Beth answered him simply, her tone confident and sure.

Daryl nodded his head at that, not sure of what else she wanted him to do. Beth did have a tendency to be right about these sorts of things, and she probably (definitely) knew more about this topic than he did. Still, Daryl couldn't help but feel hesitant and unsure.

Another long few moments passed between them before Daryl spoke again, his voice breaking slightly.

"The baby..." he said, his deep blue eyes never straying from her own even though a part of him desperately wanted to break the intense eye contact that she was holding him with.

As Daryl trailed off, he couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed; a little bit stupid, too. The back of his neck and the tips of his ears were turning a dark shade of red as he watched Beth's facial expression melt from one of confusion to one of understanding.

It took a moment or two, but then Beth was sighing out his name and nudging against where he was still tightly gripping at her wrist. At the feel of her shifting against him, Daryl immediately released her trapped flesh. Instead of reaching out to brush against him again, Beth moved her arm so that it was wrapped back around Daryl's neck, interlocking her fingers together with her other hand before she offered him a soft smile.

"Stop _worryin'_ ", Beth said to him, nuzzling her nose against his lightly.

Daryl thought on about just how strange it was to hear those exact words coming from her mouth instead of his own.

To hear Beth comforting him in such a way made him blush even more furiously than before. Usually, their roles were reversed - it would be Beth who was panicking, Beth who was over-thinking the most simplest of things, and it was always Daryl who was calming her down and make her see sense. The two words that she had just echoed to him were ones that naturally seemed to just roll from his own tongue every time his wife was upset or worried about something.

And Daryl wasn't sure whether Beth's choice of words was intentional or not, but he didn't have too much time to dwell on that before her hands were moving from where they were locked at the back of his neck and cupping at his face instead, distracting her once again. Beth placed a chaste kiss against her lips before opening her mouth to speak to him once more.

"You can't hurt the baby," she told him as she looked him straight in the eyes. " _Our_ baby."

Daryl visible swallowed.

 _Are you sure?_

Her head nodded to the silent question that he was asking her and at her slight movement, Daryl released an unsteady breath.

"They cost you _how_ much, an' none of those pregnancy books that you keep readin' told ya _that?"_ Beth teased.

Daryl only smirked at her before he shook his head quickly from left to right, still feeling slightly embarrassed and unable to find the words to say something - anything - back to her.

And she looked up into his deep blue eyes for a few more seconds longer, allowing the pads of her thumbs to trail over his cheeks once, twice, three times more before Beth eventually reached up on the tops of her toes and kissed him once again. Her tongue brushed gently against his lips and Beth moaned in approval when his own tongue pushed back against hers. Once again, she guided him further underneath the spray of the warm water, allowing it to soak the both of them whilst her hands trailed down his chest, creeping further and further south until they reached their destination.

Beth parted her lips from his and pushed her head back slightly, opening her eyes to look up to his as she wrapped her hand around him. Senses taking over, Daryl hissed loudly at the sensation, enjoying the feel of her hand trailing up and down the length of him. His own blue eyes opened to meet her gaze and Daryl looked down at his wife for a long moment, wanting to be sure that this was something that she wanted - something she was sure about - before he leaned in close again, reconnecting their lips.

And this time, Daryl didn't hold back.


	5. Chapter 5

**CHAPTER FIVE: QUESTIONS**

Friday nights happened to be Beth's favourite nights. Somehow, Beth had managed to work having weekends off into her contract considering her shifts had been that way for so long, and the garage was closed on a Saturday and Sunday, so Daryl didn't work them, either. Friday nights were Beth's favourite because it was the start of their weekend together; two full days that they could spend doing whatever they wanted - whether that meant going into town and browsing the stores there, heading to the supermarket and stocking up on the basics for the week or lying in bed and doing nothing at all - with nothing else to do.

On this particular Friday night, the two of them were sat comfortably watching the television. Beth was positioned in between her husband's legs as they sprawled out across the length of the couch, her back pressed against his chest and her head resting against his shoulder. Daryl's strong arms were wrapped loosely around her middle, his fingers occasionally brushing across her stomach in a way that made her smile.

If Beth didn't know her husband as well as she did, she might have thought that he wasn't excited about the general prospect of their unborn child. But Beth did know Daryl well - knew him better than she knew herself, sometimes - and she knew that he was excited about what was to come for them, even if he didn't necessarily voice it as much as she did.

And Daryl was far from disinterested in their baby. The fact that he had taken it upon himself to purchase some pregnancy books from the store to learn more about both pregnant women and babies told Beth that was obviously interested; not only in their baby, but also in what was happening to her own body and the general effect that the pregnancy was having on her. In fact, Beth was pretty confident that by now, Daryl knew much more about pregnancy than she did.

Her husband wasn't just making an effort on that front, either. Daryl had always been protective of her and that was still very much true now, only now that she was carrying his unborn child, that protective instinct that he carried seemed to have been pushed into overdrive. Beth had always found his protective nature endearing and sweet, enjoying the way that he cared for her and loving that she had a husband who thought so much of her. But now it seemed as though Daryl was behaving as though she was incapable of doing anything for herself.

It wasn't even necessarily a bad thing.

If Beth was being honest with herself, a selfish part of her enjoyed the way in which Daryl took to pampering her now. He was always running her bath's so that when she arrived home from a long day of work, she could dive straight into the warm water and relax for a little while. And Daryl was always driving her places now, too; despite the fact that Beth still owned her own car that she was more than capable of driving, that she would have been more than happy to drive.

 _"I could always drive us, you know," Beth commented as she hopped into his truck, clicking on her seat belt._

 _Daryl looked over at her as though she had lost her mind, and his expression caused her to giggle._

 _"You crazy, girl?" he asked, and Beth laughed a little louder at that._

 _"Daryl," she said, shaking her head. "Seriously. I'd be more than happy driving."_

 _Her husband began to reverse out of their drive, glancing over at her every few seconds._

 _"Don't want anythin' happenin' to you," he told her once they were driving down the highway._

 _Beth frowned at that._

 _"What do you mean?" she asked, genuinely confused and intrigued. "Someone could still crash into your car, you know. Something bad could still happen when you're driving us somewhere."_

 _Daryl shot her a knowing look from where he was sat in the driver's seat and Beth sighed in defeat. She supposed that his worry was kind of fair enough - after all, she would openly admit that she was quite a clumsy person, but nothing that was necessarily too extreme. After all, she had passed her driving test and got her license - didn't thank speak for itself?_

Friday nights meant spending time with her husband, and when the adverts interrupted the film that they had been watching together, she turned her head from where it was positioned in the crook of his neck so that she could look up at him.

"Would you rather have a boy or a girl?"

The question escaped her lips out of nowhere (although it probably had something to do with the way that Daryl's hands were trailing across her stomach) and Daryl chose to simply shrug his shoulders against her in response.

"What, you mean you really don't have any preference about it?" Beth asked.

Daryl shook his head at her.

"At all?" she pushed, her eyes narrowing slightly, almost suspiciously.

Daryl chuckled at her expression and continued to shake his head at her.

"Nah," he said dismissively. "Don't bother me none."

Beth hummed in response to that and fell quiet again for a short while.

"Do you?" he asked her, and Beth tilted her head further back so that she could get a better view of him as they spoke.

At her movement, Daryl naturally leaned closer to her, not missing a beat as he placed a chaste kiss against her lips. She opened her mouth to answer his question when he pulled away, but she chose to think on it for a short while longer.

"I don't know," she said after a long moment, choosing to be as honest as she could be with him.

The pair of them didn't always talk about the baby, but it was most definitely something that she enjoyed discussing with her husband - probably her favourite topic of all, actually. Whilst Daryl may have leaned more towards the quiet side when it came to expressing his excitement regarding the topic of their unborn child, Beth was anything and everything but. Sure, she was reserved around other people; but whenever she was in the presence of her husband or her family, Beth couldn't help herself but to chatter away about her son or daughter.

"I kinda love havin' an older brother," Beth admitted to Daryl. "He always looked out for me a lot when I was little, even if he did tease me somethin' awful. An' in high school, he was always there over my shoulder. It could be real annoyin', but it scared off half the boys that woulda probably messed me around if he wasn't there to stop 'em. So, I guess I kinda want a boy first, for those reasons..."

Her words trailed off then and Beth blushed when she realised that she had just vocalied her desire to have more than one child. Of course, Daryl already knew that Beth wanted a handful of children - four, perhaps maybe five - but the two of them had never really discussed how many Daryl wanted. Beth reasoned with herself that they would see how her first pregnancy went and how things between the pair of them developed as they started their own little family, and then they would go from there when deciding just how many children that they wanted to have.

Still, Beth was adamant in her mind that she wanted more than one child.

Surprisingly, Daryl seemed to be completely unaffected by Beth's indication that this would definitely not be their only child, but she gave him a few more seconds of silence before she continued to explain what she meant, making sure that Daryl had understood what she had said before she picked up where she left off.

"But I've gotta admit," Beth started up again, smiling to herself as she rested against his shoulder. "I do love frilly dresses and pink shoes, so I'd be more than happy havin' a little girl."

Daryl smirked at that.

"Can't say that I'd be lookin' forward to havin' a daughter for the same reasons," he said to her, his tone teasing.

Beth laughed at his comment, imagining that Daryl's choice of clothing for a little girl would be very different to hers. She snuggled further into his chest before reaching behind them both and grabbing her cub of milk from where it rested on the arm of the chair, taking a long sip of the cool drink before she spoke again.

"Do you wanna find out?" Beth asked him.

Even though she couldn't see his face anymore from where she was positioned as they watched the television together again - some awful new rom-com movie that was heavily lacking on both the romance and the comedy - Beth simply just _knew_ that he was frowning at her, confused.

"Wha'?" Daryl said, and Beth couldn't help but giggle.

"The sex of the baby," Beth explained, laughing a little as she spoke. "I mean, do you want to find that out?"

Daryl was quiet for a few more seconds, mulling the idea over in his head.

"Guess so," he told her, his fingers trailing across her stomach once more as he spoke. "Do you?"

"Yes," Beth told him. "I think so. It would make everything a little easier, don't you think?"

Daryl shrugged his shoulders at that and Beth knew deep down that he probably wouldn't have been bothered either way. If anything, he would probably want to find out simply out of curiosity; not for the reasons that she was more inclined to want to know, like so that she could begin to purchase suitable outfits and decorate the room that they had decided would be the nursery accordingly.

"I'm pretty sure that we can find out at the next ultrasound," Beth informed him. "I can't wait to find know. Mama is dyin' to know, too."

Daryl snorted and shook his head at that.

"Prob'ly more excited than us," he commented, and Beth laughed along with him in agreement.

After all, he was right. Annette had been more thrilled than anyone at the news of Beth's pregnancy and had been proudly announcing it to all of her friends at church. News had spread like wildfire around town and as much as Daryl hated the prying eyes, Beth seemed to be handling it quite well.

So far everyone around town - both friends and general acquaintances - had been friendly enough and even supportive, too; offering not only Beth but also Daryl words of congratulations and encouragement. The attention that he received from people that he knew was enough to make Daryl feel uncomfortable, but attention from strangers was even worse. Beth understood that he was anything but a people person and always spoke for the both of them when she thanked the people that he just didn't recognise and didn't know for being so kind towards them both.

It was nothing personal that Daryl had against anyone - it was just that he was quiet and reserved and preferred his own company to anybody else's.

Well, except maybe for Beth's.

For a long time, the people who lived in town had avoided Daryl like the plague; believing the exact same whispers about him that her sister had done once upon a time. Now that he had married Beth and had been accepted by her family, it was as though everything that had been previously said about him had been erased from people's memories. Beth knew that Daryl wasn't bothered about whether or not people around town liked him or whether they thought that he was a drug dealer or a murderer, but he was definitely bothered about what people thought about her and now their unborn child, too.

Beth was just glad that everyone was beginning to recognise that Daryl Dixon was a good man.

"Probably," Beth responded to his previous comment. "When do you think we should start working on the nursery?"

Daryl placed a kiss to the back of Beth's neck, his lips moving against her as he spoke in a way that caused her to shiver.

"Whenever you want, darlin'."


	6. Chapter 6

**CHAPTER SIX: BROTHER**

Merle knew.

Daryl was absolutely certain of that fact.

After all, Carol knew about the pregnancy - Beth had no choice but to inform her about her current state, even if she didn't actually want to. There was a lot that the women needed to discuss in terms of maternity leave and maternity pay, and Carol also had to get to work on organising who would be covering Beth's shifts whilst she was gone. Beth planned to take almost one year's paid leave from work to spend with their child, and that was a long period of time for her to be absent from the hospital, so she wanted to let Carol know about what was going on and what she had planned as soon as she possibly could so that the older woman could waste no time in organising what was going on and who would be taking over for Beth in her absence.

Somehow, even after all of this time, Merle and Carol were still very much together. It baffled him sometimes how their relationship had managed to stay solid considering the fact that his brother was an asshole who managed to fuck things up even more than Daryl did, but apparently, it worked. If Daryl was being honest, then he would admit that he was glad for it, too - now that Merle was actually in a proper relationship that was based on mutual trust, love and understanding instead of a want for drugs and sex, he was a much easier person to be around.

Granted, he was still annoying as hell - probably always would be - and he was still arrogant and obnoxious. But he was a better version of himself now that Carol was on the scene, so Daryl could only be grateful to the woman for keeping his older brother in check.

So the fact that the two of them were still very much an item (practically married, actually), Daryl was absolutely positive that Merle knew about Beth's pregnancy. The problem was, Merle hadn't mentioned it to Daryl yet and was still acting as though he didn't know anything about it.

One of the things that Daryl had been most looking forward to about Beth telling people around town about her pregnancy was that it would mean that he wouldn't actually have to tell anyone for himself because everyone around him would just know and would automatically mention it to him.

For example; Rick had done exactly that, and it made Daryl feel much more comfortable to not have to break the news to his best friend. Because, as expected, the news of Beth's pregnancy had spread around the town like wildfire, and one day after work, Rick had turned up at the garage and given Daryl a firm handshake and a clap on the back along with a grin of congratulations.

Daryl, of course, had accepted his friend's well-wishes with a dip of his head and the burning of his ears and a question of whether or not Rick wanted to go to the diner and grab a beer because Daryl was in way over his head with all of this and could do with some guy time to push him in the right direction.

Unfortunately, it was evident to him that the same thing was not going to be occurring with his stubborn ass of a brother.

Well, not if it had anything to do with Merle, anyway.

* * *

As always, Merle just strolled straight on into the house without so much as knocking and made himself quite comfortable on the sofa, toeing off his boots and leaving them messily on the floor before putting his feet up on the coffee table that sat in the middle of the living room.

And just as always, Daryl frowned at his brother's actions but didn't say anything as he went into the kitchen to grab the pizza that had been cooking in the oven and pulled it out. Daryl didn't need to ask Merle whether or not he was hungry - after all, Merle would eat free food whether he was starving or whether he was stuffed. So Daryl plated up the pizza for the both of them and passed one of the plates to his brother on his way back into the living room.

The two brother's sat in silence for a few minutes whilst they indulged in their pizza (with Merle eating much louder than Daryl liked to) and watched a crappy show that was on television - some re-runs about people bidding on storage lots and seeing what they won after they had bought it; or at least something along those types of lines, anyway. Daryl wasn't really paying much attention to the TV show and was instead allowing his gaze to wander over to where his brother was sat across from him, still scoffing his face with pizza.

Daryl let out a heavy sigh, finally breaking the silence that hung between them both. It wasn't necessarily awkward as of yet, but it was getting there.

"I know that you know," Daryl said.

Merle took another large bite out of one of his remaining slices of pizza before he let the rest drop back down onto the plate. Merle turned to face his younger brother, his eyes - a set of much lighter blue than Daryl's own - widened slightly as he feigned confusion.

"An' what do I know?" Merle asked.

His brother's words may have been innocent, but his tone definitely wasn't. It was teasing and almost playful, causing Daryl to scoff and shake his head from side to side.

"Ain't no need t'play dumb wit' me, Merle," Daryl grumbled as he reached for another slice of his own pizza. "I know Carol's tol' you."

This time, it was Merle's turn to scoff.

"An' what is it that Carol's told me?" Merle retorted, returning his attention back to his pizza.

Damn, his brother was being stubborn about this.

But fine. If Merle wanted to play this game, then he wanted to play this game. Daryl had given up entertaining him any longer and chose to let out another deep sigh before he bit into some more of his pizza, chewing on it in silence and taking the time to swallow it down before he spoke again.

"Beth's pregnant."

Their eyes met from across the couch and their gaze held for a few seconds, both of their expressions serious and stoic. But then Merle was breaking out into a wide grin and letting out a loud, teasing laugh that made Daryl want to roll his eyes.

Why he even bothered to entertain his older brother in this manner, he still didn't really know. Just because Merle practically had a wife and a step-daughter now didn't necessarily mean that he was mature a lot of the time.

"Well I'll say," Merle responded, that ridiculously wide shit-eating grin never leaving his face as he took a swig of his drink. "S'about time, y'know. You had me worried that things weren't exactly workin' for ya down south for a while there, Darylina."

This time, Daryl fought with the urge to groan _and_ roll his eyes.

"Shut up, Merle."

Daryl's words were mumbled and were mostly in vain as they only seemed to amuse his brother even more, causing him to laugh out loudly. After a short while, he seemed to have calmed down and looked sort of serious as he glanced over at his brother.

"How far gone is she?" Merle asked.

Never too sure how exactly to react around his brother, Daryl settled for shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly and acting as though he didn't quite know the answer to his brother's question when in fact he could probably bet that he knew how many _days_ pregnant his wife was, never mind how many weeks.

Still, he wasn't going to tell Merle that.

"Round sixteen weeks," Daryl said, and Merle nodded at that, actually looking quite thoughtful as he chewed on some more of his food.

Silence fell back over them for a little while and Daryl tried to think of something else to say to his brother.

"We found out if it's a boy or a girl soon," Daryl commented.

Merle whistled at that, holding his pizza firmly in his hands but turning his head round so that he was facing Daryl.

"What d'ya want?" he asked, and Daryl shook his head.

"Don't mind," he responded truthfully.

Daryl had said the same thing to Beth - perhaps in a few more words, but still the same thing either way - and it was the truth, too.

Daryl had never really entertained the idea of being a father until Beth came along and now that it was actually happening, he decided that he really had no preference over whether he had a son or a daughter. Beth had made it quite clear that she wanted more than one child and Daryl supposed that it meant that they would probably end up at least having one of each, so it didn't matter all too much whether they had a boy or a girl first.

"Wouldn't mind a nephew," Merle said thoughtfully as he chewed on his pizza. "Wouldn't mind a niece, either."

Daryl chucked at that.

"Reckon you're ready?" Merle asked, turning his head away from the television screen so that he was looking at Daryl once again.

Instead of shrugging his shoulders and mumbling some incoherent answer, Daryl turned his head too so that he was looking his brother dead in the eyes and nodded his head up and down once.

"Yeah," he said, his tone confident, voice never breaking. "Yeah, I reckon I am."

The two brother's looked at each other for a few seconds more before Merle started grinning again and Daryl couldn't resist the urge to smile, either. His older brother pushed his upper body across the space of the couch and clapped Daryl on the back of his shoulder a few times as he shook his head.

"Congratulations, baby brother," Merle said, the grin on his face never faltering as he spoke. "Always knew you'd make me proud someday."

Daryl's throat went dry at that but he swallowed and pushed the lump that had gathered there down.

"Thanks, Merle," he said, and his brother just nodded his head at him before he removed his hand from Daryl's shoulder and slouched back into his previous position on the couch, taking another bite of his pizza as he returned his attention to the television.


	7. Chapter 7

**CHAPTER SEVEN: SEX**

Visiting the hospital and not going to work a shift was something that Beth was still struggling to adjust to. This would be her second time attending an ultrasound appointment, but there had been several general appointments regarding her pregnancy that Beth and her husband had attended and each time, she somehow managed to find herself either automatically strolling down towards the ward that she was based on or towards the staff room.

Either way, it was Daryl who tugged at her elbow each time she automatically walked towards either direction and reminded her that they were going " _this_ way" and each time, Beth's cheeks would burn crimson and a little laugh escaped her lips as she shook her head. And each time, Beth told Daryl that it was just so strange to come to the hospital for any other reason than to work, and each time Daryl nodded his head at her and pulled her close so that he could wrap his arm around her shoulders and place a kiss to her forehead.

Most of her colleagues at the hospital now knew that Beth was pregnant, meaning that it was much, much easier to manouever their way around the hospital since she didn't have to worry about who she might bump into down each and every corridor.

"What time are you due back in work?" Beth asked.

Daryl had already seated himself down in the waiting room whilst Beth had informed the receptionist that they had arrived for their appointment and she went and sat beside him, interlocking their hands together as she did so. They were sat directly opposite from the restroom and Beth groaned inwardly, the sight of it instantly reminding her of just how full her bladder was at the moment. Her bladder was weak enough as it was and she found that she needed to go to the toilet often enough even before she was pregnant, but now that it had been filled to the brim with bottles and bottles of water in preparation for her ultrasound, Beth found that her joke about her bladder being the size of an olive might actually be more of a fact.

"I ain't," Daryl told her, his eyes scanning around the waiting room. "Took the day off."

Beth's eyes widened in surprise at that, a slow smile creeping across her face.

"You did?" she asked, although she knew that he would never tease her about something like that.

Daryl nodded at her once in response to her question and Beth shuffled closer to him ever so slightly, completely closing the gap in between them so that she could rest her head against his shoulder, letting out a deep breath as she did so. The couple sat in a comfortable silence for a little while, Beth entertaining herself by watching people wander in and out of the waiting room; some of them heavily pregnant, other's barely even showing in the slightest.

On the scale of _"You're pregnant? How?!"_ to _"Oh my God, you look like you're about to blow!",_ Beth figured that she was wavering somewhere in the middle at the moment. A bump had definitely started to develop, but it wasn't quite 'out there' just yet.

Throughout her life, Beth had always been a slender girl and now she supposed that she was more of a slender _woman,_ but she was tiny all the same. Standing at little over five foot tall didn't help her cause much, either, but she had always had narrow hips and a flat chest and skinny legs no matter how much or how little she ate or how much or how little she exercised.

And Beth had grown used to always being small, and it didn't bother her as much as it used to. The worst was probably the awkward years in high school when it seemed like all of the boys that she knew compared her to her older sister - her older sister with curves, with larger breasts and wider hips and more shapely, long legs. Her older sister who couldn't help the way that she looked, but who made her feel so hopeless in comparison. Now that she was older, Beth had grown to accept the way that she was built and to love her body, too, and instead of hating the way that she looked, she _embraced_ it now.

Well, that had been until she went and got herself pregnant. Beth couldn't even bear to look at the scales, never mind stand on them, knowing that she would only upset herself more than she already was doing. Daryl tried his best to reassure her - really, he did - and he was sweet, in his own awkward little way. Her husband tried his best to remind her every time she mentioned her appearance that she was _pregnant_ and that she was barely even showing anyway, but no matter what he said to her, Beth still couldn't shake the feeling that she was absolutely huge.

"You know," Beth said, her voice in a half-whisper as she leaned in close to Daryl's ear. "Some women carry twins and don't even find out until later on in their pregnancy, 'cause one of the babies has been hidin' behind the other the whole time."

The nervous expression that lit up Daryl's face caused Beth to giggle and before he even had the chance to entertain her with some form a response, the receptionist was craning her neck from where she was sat behind the desk and was calling out their surname. Daryl stood up instantly at the sound of it and offered his hand out to his wife to help her stand up, and Beth offered him a kind smile before accepting it. She wasn't quite at a stage where she couldn't get up out of a chair by herself, but Beth wasn't going to complain about him trying to act like a gentleman.

The receptionist was polite enough to the both of them as she directed them to the room that their appointment was going to be held in and Beth led the way towards it, pushing the door to the room open and tentatively stepping inside, her hand intertwined with Daryl's as she did so. The radiologist was sat in the far corner next to a computer and smiled up at the pair of them, motioning for Beth to come over and to get herself comfortable on the chair. Daryl busied himself by shutting the door behind them whilst Beth positioned herself in the chair and pulled her jeans down to expose her lower abdomen, shuddering as the woman poured the cool gel over her stomach.

"Sorry," the older woman chuckled, and Beth shook her head dismissively whilst Daryl came and sat himself beside her.

"It's fine," Beth responded, a soft smile on her features as she relaxed further into the chair whilst Daryl reached for her hand and slipped it into his.

The woman tapped away on the keyboard of her computer for a few seconds, apologising for the wait before she began to ask some of the routine questions that Beth was more than used to by now.

Relief washed over Beth's features when the sound of her child's galloping heartbeat filled the quiet room. Daryl gave her hand a tight squeeze at the sound of it and she couldn't help but smile when the radiologist re-positioned the screen so that they could both see the grainy image of their child.

"Are you wanting to find out the sex of your baby?" the radiologist asked, and Beth's head instantly snapped towards her husband. She offered him an excited smile when he nodded his head at her, and she didn't break eye contact with him when she responded with a _"please"._

The two of them had already had this conversation several times in the last few days, and each time, Daryl had insisted to Beth that the decision was really completely up to her because he honestly didn't mind whether they knew what they were having or not. And as much as Beth thought that it would be a lovely surprise to leave knowing the gender of their baby until he or she arrived, Beth knew in herself that she was far too curious for that. At just nineteen weeks pregnant, Beth was already growing impatient in terms of wanting to know, and she wasn't sure how on earth she would be expected to cope for another twenty weeks or so without knowing whether she would be giving birth to a son or a daughter.

"Let's see..." the radiologist said, returning her attention to the sonogram and narrowing her eyes slightly, nibbling on her lip as she concentrated on the image in front of her.

Both Beth and Daryl stared at her intently, and the woman smirked at them both a little whilst her gaze flickered from the image on the screen to them and then back to the screen once more. She let out a sigh and pressed down on one of the buttons on the keyboard as she tapped against the screen, pointing out something to the couple on the grainy image and turning herself in her chair so that she was facing more towards them both.

"Do you see that?" the woman asked.

Beth wasn't sure how Daryl responded because she couldn't see his face, but she shook her head blankly at the radiologist in response. In all honesty, she really couldn't make out much on the screen at all.

The radiologist laughed a little and removed her hand from the screen.

"Well," she said, her eyes dancing between the pair of them. "I think that congratulations are in order. I'm almost ninety percent sure that you'll be having a son."

The words took a few seconds for Beth to process, but when she finally did, her heart began to race inside of her chest. The young woman instantly turned her head towards her husband so that they locked eyes with one another and she almost wanted to laugh at the look of utter surprise that decorated his features as he stared right back at her.

"A boy?" Beth questioned after a long few moments, her head turning slightly so that she was slightly facing the radiologist who had taken to snapping off her gloves and placing the scan pictures that she had printed for them into a little wallet.

The woman stopped in her movements for a moment and looked down at Beth from where she was sat on the computer chair and nodded her head confidently.

"Yes," she said, smiling as she sealed up the wallet and passed it over into Daryl's unsteady hand whilst Beth began to button up her maternity jeans. "A boy. I mean, I can't guarantee anything... We're really not allowed to. But I'm about as certain as I can be that you're having a little boy."

Beth couldn't help but grin as she turned back around to face her husband once more.

"A boy," she repeated to him, her tone more certain this time as she tested out the taste of it on her tongue.

 _A son._

"Yeah," Daryl murmured back to her, squeezing her hand tightly again whilst still looking as though he was very much in a state of shock. "A boy."

Beth's eyes widened then as she returned her attention back to the radiologist, sitting herself up on the reclined chair with her elbows.

"And you're sure there's only one in there?" she asked, her voice sounding slightly panicked.

The radiologist laughed at that, seeming genuinely amused as she gathered her things together and began to wipe down the equipment.

"I'm sure," she insisted with a nod of her head.

The younger woman sighed in relief at that as she pushed herself from the chair and stood upright, beaming at her husband as he held on to her hand and helped her get up from the uncomfortable position. Beth briefly thanked the radiologist before making a move to leave the room, still hand-in-hand with Daryl.

"This mean that we can start shoppin' for baby things now, right?" Beth asked him as they hovered in the doorway, smiling faintly at the sound of the radiologist laughing heartily from behind her at the question.

Daryl smirked, too, a knowing look in his eyes.

"Guess it does," he told her, and Beth smiled even brighter at that as he led the way out of the room.

It was only when they reached the truck again - Daryl jumping straight into the driver's side and Beth scooting beside him in the passenger seat - that she pushed herself towards him and placed a long kiss on his lips. She hadn't been able to stop smiling during the entire walk over to their car, and she had a feeling that this feeling would continue to bubble inside of her for the next few hours, at least.

"A boy," she murmured against his lips, bumping her nose with his.

Daryl made an _mmm_ noise in the back of his throat as he stretched out his hand and tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear.

"Yeah," he said, repeating his previous words to her.

He didn't look as shocked anymore - now that they were alone, he seemed more relaxed, more at ease and more confident, too. "A boy."


	8. Chapter 8

**CHAPTER EIGHT: LIST**

"I'm going to write us up a list of all of the things that we're goin' to need for the baby," Beth said as she strolled slightly ahead of Daryl through the mother and baby aisle of the supermarket, her eyes wide as she took in all of the different products and brands that lined the shelves.

Daryl was following closely behind her, pushing the cart that was already half-filled with bits and pieces that they needed for the week. His eyes trailed after hers, following her line of vision but choosing not to linger too long on all of the products in the same way that hers were, instead raising a brow at her as he spoke.

"You sure love writin' lists out, huh?" he asked, his sarcastic tone eliciting a giggle from Beth's lips.

"Honestly, you have _no_ idea," she retorted, exaggerating the syllables of her words in a way that made him chuckle, the sound rumbling through his chest. "But really. There's a lot that we're gonna need, an' I don't want to forget anything. It's probably easier to start buyin' things week by week, or maybe even month by month, an' just checkin' it off instead of goin' out an buyin' everythin' all at once."

Daryl nodded his head in understanding at his wife's words and supposed that she did have a good point and that her words did make sense to him. He didn't voice his opinion on the matter though and instead chose to simply follow Beth's lead towards the next aisle. However much he wasn't that interested in which brand of shampoo Beth chose to use for their baby, he _was_ intrigued at the sight of the cribs that were on display towards the end of the aisle, and he slowed down his pace dramatically so as he examined them all.

At the sight of the price tags, Daryl's eyes widened in disbelief. Had Beth not wandered off further down the next aisle then Daryl would have probably voiced his shocked opinion to her about the scandalous price of the damn things - after all, they were just pieces of wood slipped together. Fuck, some of them were even pieces of _plastic_ and they still cost a hefty bit of cash.

With Beth working full-time at the hospital and Daryl working more overtime than he even thought was possible at the garage, the couple were comfortable. It wasn't as though they were rich - because really, they were definitely far from that - but it also wasn't as if they were poor, either, and the pair of them had each set up a pension a while ago and Daryl always made sure that he put some of his wages each week into a savings account and Beth did the same each month, too. And considering the fact that Daryl had been managing just fine in terms of paying all of his bills (including the mortgage) before Beth came into his life, he was now doing more than fine since Beth was there to contribute.

Still, that definitely didn't mean that either of them had money to just blow on anything and everything. Daryl had had a shitty childhood and his son hadn't even been born yet and he'd be damned if that kid ever went through even a snippet of the shit that he did, and he knew in his heart that he'd pay whatever the cost to make sure that his son had everything that he ever needed, too. But spending close to two hundred dollars just on a crib that probably wouldn't even last a full year seemed a little ridiculous, in Daryl's opinion.

Beth called out Daryl's name from where she was stood half-way down the next aisle, and the sound instantly pulled her husband from his thoughts. Daryl immediately set off in her direction, picking up his speed so that he could reach her quickly. Beth smiled at him as he arrived beside her before she began to place some jars of pasta sauce into the cart, chattering away to him about how she had been craving this particular pasta sauce for the last few days now, and even though Beth usually preferred to use her mama's home recipes and make the products that they ate herself if she could help it, this particular sauce really was _"something else"_ and Beth just _had_ to have it tonight.

And Daryl was pretty damned confident that his wife's home-cooked pasta sauce would taste a lot better than the ready-made shit in the jar, but he decided not to voice his opinion about it and instead nodded his head at her as though he was agreeing with what she was saying. For that, Beth rewarded him with a chaste kiss on the lips before she set off wandering around the aisles again, talking to him about some brand of chocolate that she was really in the mood for.

The pregnancy books had warned him well in advance that cravings would kick into her soon enough, and Daryl was just glad that he had been prepared for it.

* * *

"You didn't have to do that," Daryl heard Beth say over the phone in the dining room, surprise evident in her tone.

Daryl was pretty sure that Beth was speaking to either one of her parents - probably her mama, but he was never too confident about it - but he didn't pay much attention to the rest of the phone call. Instead, he focused on pulling the pasta bake out of the oven, his stomach growling hungrily as the smell of it invaded his nostrils. He busied himself by plating up their food as quickly as he could and then proceeded to carry it into the dining room, placing both of the plates down at their usual spots on the table whilst Beth smiled over at him from the other side of the lounge.

Whilst Beth wrapped up the phone call, Daryl strolled back into the kitchen and poured his wife a glass of water before grabbing himself a beer, nudging the door of the fridge to a close with his foot before he made his way back into the dining room.

Beth took her water with a _"thank you"_ and sat herself down at the table beside her husband, wasting no time in digging into the hot plate of food. She moaned loudly at the taste of it, causing Daryl to smirk over at her.

"This is _heavenly,"_ Beth said as she scooped more of the pasta into her mouth, closing her eyes and savoring the taste of it.

Personally, Daryl thought that it was alright and that heavenly was probably taking it a bit too far, but he had never really thought much of his own cooking before anyway.

"It was my mama on the phone," Beth informed him, confirming his suspicions as they ate. Daryl nodded at her as he chugged down some of his beer. "She, er... She told me that her an' daddy were out shoppin' today, an' they've gone an' bought us a stroller."

Daryl blinked at her.

"For the baby," she said, as though he may had thought that her parents would purchase a stroller for Beth to put him in.

"Yeah," Daryl said, nodding his head at her then.

His mother and father in law always had good intentions. Not just sometimes, but always. And he appreciated it, too. Still, Daryl was never good at showing that appreciation; and even over his time with Beth, he had never mastered the art of knowing what to say in response to receiving gifts. And a stroller was a pretty big gift to give them both, too.

Even if Annette and Hershel weren't there now, that didn't mean that they wouldn't come down sometime over the next few days, and that would mean that he'd have to think of some way to thank them for their kind gesture then.

"S'nice of 'em," he commented before putting another forkful of pasta into his mouth.

Beth nodded her head at that and tucked a piece of hair behind her ears as she chewed on some more of her own pasta, too.

"It is," she agreed. "I think they're just excited to have their first grandchild, you know?"

Daryl didn't know, but he didn't tell her that.

"You tell 'em it's a boy yet?" he asked, and Beth shook her head from side to side as she swallowed down a rather large mouthful of her food.

"Not yet," she said after she had taken a sip of her water to help wash the food down. "Maggie's insistin' that she organises the baby shower, so I'm only gonna tell her, an' then everyone will find out at the shower."

That sounded like a nice enough idea, and Daryl could just imagine how Annette would react when she finally found out that she would be having a grandson. If it were up to him, he would probably only tell the people that he really had to, like Beth's parents and his brother. That, or just not tell anyone until the baby was actually born, and then everyone could find out for themselves that way.

And Daryl didn't know much about telling people what sex of a baby they were having - hell, he'd struggled enough figuring out the words to say to tell his own fucking brother that his wife was pregnant - but he thought that as far as nice surprised went, then Beth's idea was a pretty decent one.

"Sounds good t'me," he grunted.

Beth beamed brightly at her husband's words as though he had just given her a much more detailed compliment about her idea and Daryl just smiled back at her for a moment. Perhaps she could see the unspoken words in his eyes, or maybe it was all just in his head, but it was times like these when Daryl got the feeling that Beth just _knew_ everything that he was thinking, everything that he wished that he could tell her. Like how he thought that she was an absolute genius; the smartest girl that he knew - hell, the smartest _person_ that he knew, period - and that she deserved more credit for all of her wonderful ideas.

After that, the pair of them ended up finishing their meals in comfortable silence, and then Beth was insisting that she washed up the dishes considering Daryl had _"done all the hard work."_ He opened his mouth to protest that all he had really done was shove some pasta, cheese and some sauce in a dish and dump it in the oven for an hour to cook, but the pointed look that Beth gave him as she stubbornly collected up the pots caused him to shut his mouth immediately.

"I'm pregnant, not immobile, Daryl," she reminded him, kissing him on top of the head once she had picked up their plates before she disappeared into the kitchen.

It wasn't until later on in the evening when the pair of them were lay in bed with one of Daryl's hands resting on his wife's ever-growing stomach that Beth cleared her throat and asked him the question that he had a feeling had been brewing around in her mind for the last few hours.

"Are you gonna come to the baby shower?" she asked, her brow furrowed as the words slipped out of her mouth.

And Daryl wasn't quite sure how to respond to her question - completely unsure of what she wanted him to say - so he shrugged his shoulder nonchalantly.

"Guess so," he mumbled to her once he had cleared his throat, his uncertainty fizzling away when she smiled at him. "If you wan' me to, that is."

Beth nodded her head up and down quickly at that.

"Of course I do," she told him, her voice barely reaching louder than a whisper as she stared straight into his eyes.

"Alrigh'," Daryl confirmed, shuffling around a little so that the position he was in was a more comfortable one. "S'long as you wan' me there, I'll be there."

Beth grinned happily at his words and pushed her body forward so that she could press a soft kiss to his lips. A small purr escaped her throat when he probed at her tongue with his own, and it didn't take long for things to get a bit more heated between them; for Beth to straddle her husband's lap and tug down his sweatpants, the pair of them groaning and panting in pleasure as she slid her body up and down the length of them, wasting no time in bringing them both to the brink of orgasm with her perfected movements.


	9. Chapter 9

**CHAPTER NINE: NURSERY**

Shift work wasn't easy for anybody.

Changingthe pattern of work week in, week out meant that it was difficult to keep on top of your body clock. Beth found that the weeks when she had to work the night shifts were usually the worst for her, not only because it meant that she didn't really see much of her husband considering he worked during the day, but also because she had a tendency to wake up quite early in the morning - meaning she didn't get much sleep at all during that week. Sometimes, the unsociable hours could be a bit on an inconvenience, too; but Beth had always been able to manage it and keep a hand on it, always just got along with it and never really complained. After all, she adored being a nurse at the hospital - it was a job she had dreamed of doing since she was a little girl and this was just part of the parcel of it.

Plus, Beth thought that she was a little bit lucky, too. Most nurses had to work weekend shifts, too, whereas she had (by some miracle) managed to work it into her contract that she had weekends as set days off. That meant that her job role was just a little bit sweeter, and the knowledge that she got to have her two days off alongside her husband every week (well, unless Daryl decided to work some overtime on a Saturday) pushed her through the Monday-Friday shifts.

But things were different now.

Beth was twenty two weeks pregnant now and she was finding that she was starting to have trouble sleeping completely through the night. When she had confided in Annette about it, her mama had teased her and said that this will be good preparation for her for when the baby actually arrives, although Beth was still struggling to see the funny side of that. Especially on the weeks when she had to work the night shift and it seemed as though it would be impossible for her to ever be able to get any sleep at all. During the day, the rooms in the house were too bright and too warm and during the evening she had to grab her things and go. It was made even worse by the fact that she had strictly limited her caffeine intake now that she was pregnant, so she couldn't even indulge in some coffee or a red bull to give her a much-needed boost before work.

Thankfully, that week of working the night shift was over now, so come two o'clock in the afternoon, Beth was grabbing her belongings from the staff room and waving both hello and goodbye to Noah who was just starting his shift as she was leaving. Today was Daryl's day off, too, since he was due to go into work for a few hours on Saturday morning, and he had informed Beth that Merle was going to come round for some lunch.

And it wasn't that Beth didn't get along with her brother in law - his presence didn't intimidate her, at least any more. In fact, Beth got along just fine with Merle and thought that he wasn't half as bad as she originally thought he might be when she first started meeting up with Daryl and knew that she would eventually have to meet his older brother. But Beth knew that Daryl and Merle didn't spend much time together as it was - Daryl had Beth and Merle had Carol and he had a sort of step-daughter, too - so the brothers were both busy with their families and that meant that they lacked in spending quality time together, just the two of them.

So instead of heading home, Beth decided to get changed out of her scrubs in the changing area at work and then headed straight into town to go and do some shopping. True to her word, Beth had written up a list of everything and anything that she and Daryl could possibly need for the baby, and she decided that today was as good a day as any to get started on ticking off the items from the list.

Beth's parents had been kind enough to purchase a stroller for them - one of the fancier-type ones that you can use until the child is toddling about everywhere because it comes with that many different adjustments and attachments - but there were still lots of other items to buy, too. Beth decided that she wanted to wait to buy the bigger items with her husband, like the crib and the car seat, because there were far too many to choose from and she would be glad to have Daryl's input on what they really needed. But Beth knew her husband well enough to know that when it came to baby clothes and shampoos and nappies, Daryl would be more than happy for her to do all of the choosing.

So that's what she did.

Well, in a way.

Beth figured that she would take it easy for now and start buying little bits and bobs so that in the end, it all added up. She took her time strolling through the limited choice of stores in town and thought that maybe her and Daryl could take a trip into the city in a few weeks where there would be a lot more options for her to choose from. But for now, Beth was happy enough with what the town would provide for them and in the end settled on buying a pack of vests and some simple body suit's. They were cute enough - all dark and light blue colours - and pretty cheap, too, so Beth figured that it didn't matter if (when) they got ruined.

It was close to quarter to five when Beth finally pulled up in the driveway of their home and she was relieved to see that Merle's bike wasn't parked up there. Not relieved because she didn't want to see him, but relieved because it meant that she wasn't interrupting on that brotherly bonding time that she was always encouraging Daryl to have.

The house was quiet when she entered, but she didn't think much of it. Daryl had taken to reading the books upstairs in the office some weeks ago now, so she came to expect him to be up there if he wasn't downstairs. Instead of going to find her husband straight away, Beth kicked off her shoes and walked into the living room, placing her shopping bags down onto the floor beside the coffee table and made a beeline for the kitchen.

As she made herself a glass of water, Beth listened to the sound of Daryl's footsteps as he walked around upstairs. She was almost certain that the noise that he was making was coming from their spare room, but she didn't think much of it as she began to chug down her water.

When Beth began her ascent upstairs, she frowned when she caught sight of the door to the office wide open and revealing that Daryl wasn't in there. Instinctively she walked over towards the spare room where she had heard him walking around and tentatively pushed the door to it open, peaking her head around the side of it when it was only just slightly ajar as though she were afraid that someone was going to jump out at her at any second.

Of course, nobody was there to jump out at her. Just Daryl stood in the middle of the room, his deep blue eyes wide as though he were surprised at her entrance, a roller covered with dripping wet yellow paint in his hand. Beth blinked at him several times, frozen in place as she realised that he had headphones in his ears and was listening to music so hadn't heard her come home.

Daryl tugged out the earplugs as Beth pushed the door into the room further open and took a step inside, her eyes wide as they roamed around the place.

"Did you do this?"

Her voice was barely above a whisper but she knew that Daryl heard her question. He nodded his head at her once, clearly not expecting her to have come home so soon.

So soon, though? She had finished work almost three hours ago. Beth would have almost felt guilty had the sight of him looking so surprised not been slightly adorable.

Beth breathed his name as she edged closer towards him, wrapping her arms around his neck when she reached him and pulling him into her embrace. Daryl was still holding on to the wet roller and so only returned her hug with one of his own arms, keeping the roller away from her. As Beth pulled back she didn't hesitate to press a kiss to his cheek.

"You didn't have to do this," she said as her eyes began to roam around the room once more.

Daryl shrugged.

"Wanted to," he mumbled, but his words were cut off slightly as Beth gasped loudly.

The room was done up beautifully. According to the roller that was still hanging loosely from his arm, Daryl wasn't quite finished with the painting, although all of the walls were painted perfectly in yellow, so Beth wasn't sure where on earth he was trying to paint now.

But it wasn't all that he had done.

Her husband had always been good with his hands and that was one of the things that Beth loved so much about him. She may have been able to play all sorts of musical instruments, but that didn't mean that her hands were much good for anything else, whereas Daryl was able to do pretty much anything he set his mind to. He could make, break and fix all sorts of things that Beth didn't even think were possible of doing with his hands, and one of her most cherished possessions in their house was the desk that he had made for her.

All thoughts of choosing a crib for their baby alongside her husband disappeared from her mind when her eyes set sight on the one that was positioned in the middle of the room, slightly hidden by Daryl's position. Beth scooted around him so that she could get a better look at it and immediately began to run her fingers across the wood, her eyes wide and the smile on her face bright and excited.

"You made this?" she asked, although she already knew the answer.

Of course she knew the answer. There was no two ways about it, no doubt in her mind that this was his work and not the work of a crib already made up in a box. It even _smelled_ like freshly carved wood.

"Yeah," he said, confirming her suspicions, and Beth immediately blamed the tears that prickled in her eyes on her hormones.

She'd been doing a lot of that, recently.

"It's beautiful," she murmured, her eyes then flickering up to the decent sized wardrobe that had been placed in the corner of the room beside the bay window and then to the three shelves that decorated the opposite wall. She didn't even need to ask whether he had built those, too; because even if there was room for any doubt in her mind that her husband wasn't capable of crafting such beautiful items, the matching colours of all of the wood gave it away that it was indeed Daryl's own work.

"Merle helped."

Daryl's voice came from behind her, slightly muffled by the noise of him placing the roller back down into the tin of wet paint. Beth laughed at that and span back around so that she was facing him.

"He did?" she asked, and Daryl nodded.

Beth crept closer to him then and wrapped her arms around the back of his neck once more, smiling happily when both of his hands came to rest on her hips. She stood on her tiptoes, her lips dangerously close to his own so that they brushed against each other when she spoke, her voice low and soft.

"Since he's not here, I guess I'll have to just give _you_ a thank-you kiss..." she murmured, pressing her mouth against his.

Her shoulders sagged when Daryl returned her kiss without hesitation, a groan escaping his lips when Beth probed his mouth with her tongue. They were locked in each other's embrace for some time and Beth only parted the kiss so that she could breathe, gasping for air as her forehead rested against his.

Beth pulled back from him slightly, a little bit flustered as she smiled up at him.

"Thank you," she said to him, and he nodded his head at her. Beth sighed as she ran her hands through his hair, her eyes exploring his face before resting on his own eyes once again. "It's perfect."

"You like it?" he asked, and Beth gave him a knowing look.

"You don't even have to ask me that," she said, shaking her head. "I _love_ it."

* * *

 **I just thought that I'd let you all know that I've gone back and edited all of the chapters for this story over the last two days. I've not changed anything major, but I have added a lot more detail to the chapters and the word count has significantly increased. It's been a struggle balancing three stories and keeping on top of them all and I just wasn't all that happy with what I'd written for this story. It doesn't matter if you re-read it or if you don't, but for those of you who wanted chapters that were a little bit longer and more detailed, then you'd probably enjoy starting again.**

 **As always, thank you for reading and please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

**CHAPTER TEN: MOVEMENT**

"Hey."

The sound of Beth's voice echoing through the darkness of the room at barely above a whisper met his ears, and in that moment, Daryl cursed himself for being such a light sleeper. Daryl didn't bother to fight the sleep groan that slipped out of his lips as he rolled himself on the bed from his front so that he was lay flat on his back, throwing one of his arms over his eyes in one swift movement as though he was attempting to shield himself from the light.

That was the problem - there was no light. At all.

The bedroom was coated in complete and utter darkness except for the faint red glow of the alarm clock, and Daryl just knew that it had to be the middle of the night - at least two or three in the morning. Still, the time of day didn't seem to deter his wife from trying to wake him up, nudging him gently in the ribs with one of her fingers.

Thankfully, he wasn't due to be in work in the morning. It was one of those nice, relaxing weekends where neither of them had to work - he wasn't needed to do any overtime at the garage and Beth never worked weekends at the hospital anyway - so they could stay up as late as they wanted and sleep in as late as they wanted to, as well.

But tonight, it seemed as though Beth had other plans.

"Daryl?" she said, her words spoken at a louder tone this time. "Are you awake?"

It seemed as though the most natural thing in the world for Daryl to do at that moment in time was to grunt, so he did. He hadn't intended for his non-verbal response to be humorous (at all), but Beth giggled anyway, clearly finding _something_ amusing. As much as Daryl didn't want to get up, his lips naturally twitched upwards into a smile at the sound of Beth's laughter and he pushed his arm further from his face so that he could make out the outline of his wife's frame.

"Am now," he told her in response to her previous question, and Beth let out a hum of approval before scooting her body closer towards his. In the darkness of the room, it was impossible to make out much of anything, so he settled for brushing his nose against Beth's and waited a few seconds for her to explain to him why she had woken him up in the middle of the night.

Beth was gone twenty weeks pregnant at this point and it her stomach was becoming much more swollen (although her stomach wasn't the only part of her body that was). His wife was constantly complaining about back pain and as much as Daryl tried to help her, he knew that there wasn't much at all that he could do for her, so most of the time he tried not to say too much about it. The pregnancy books that he had read told him that Beth's hormones would be bothering her and so she could have some quite extensive mood swings, but so far, Daryl's wife hadn't thrown him anything that he couldn't handle.

Still, the younger woman was becoming more frustrated about her sleeping pattern. Because of her growing stomach, Beth was learning that she could only really sleep on her back or on her side as opposed to on her front, which (apparently) was her favourite position to lay down in. The nights seemed to be long and restless for her, and as much as Daryl tried to be supportive, he was at a loss of what to do for her.

Waking him up in the middle of the night, however, was not something that Beth did - ever. Even when she had been ill in the past, Beth had still always made an effort to make sure that she didn't disturb her husband.

It looked like that side of her had gone out of the window.

"Give me your hand," Beth whispered to him, and Daryl could practically hear the goofy grin on her face as she spoke.

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly and even in the darkness, he narrowed his eyes at Beth somewhat suspiciously. She didn't try and yank his hand from him; instead, she waited patiently whilst he reached out towards her and intertwined his fingers with her almost cautiously, not sure of exactly what Beth wanted him to do.

For a brief few moments, Beth held his hand in hers - even gave it a squeeze - but then she was switching the position so that the palm of her hand was resting gently on top of his and she was guiding his hand towards her body.

When she placed his palm flat against her stomach, Daryl had to admit to himself that it definitely hadn't been what he had been expecting when she started guiding him towards her. That was the thing about her hormones driving her body crazy - Beth was horny, too. A lot more so than usual. To the point where he was struggling to keep up with her antics. Apparently, though, she didn't want sex from him now. And for a short few seconds, Daryl wasn't really sure what it was that his wife wanted from him.

That was, however, until he felt it.

Small and gentle and barely even there if you didn't concentrate on it properly enough. Soft and delicate, a sort of prodding at his hand that he knew had to be a kick, but couldn't be sure until Beth confirmed it.

"Is tha' -"

"Yes."

And Daryl was shocked; genuinely taken aback by the whole situation because _this_ had most definitely not been what he was expecting when Beth woke him up, and now that it was actually happening, he found that all of his desire to drift off back to sleep had vanished. Daryl was completely awake, eyes wide and mouth hanging open and completely unsure of what to do.

His hand was practically glued to Beth's stomach, and when he finally felt as though he could move an inch of his body, Daryl raised his other hand to her stomach and pressed it against her skin there, too. Daryl had seen pregnant women before - hell, Merle had slept with more than one of them - but that didn't mean that he ever fully understood everything that went on with babies and pregnancies. He'd never personally dealt with a pregnant women - especially not as intimately as he was being with Beth - and this experience of feeling _his child_ moving inside of _his wife_ was better than any of the damn pregnancy books had said that it would be.

Daryl was uncertain of just how long it was that he stayed there like that, but Beth eventually let out a little giggle and pushed her lips to his in a chaste but loving kiss. He was still completely stunned; shocked and unsure and feeling as though he was slightly in awe of the whole situation.

And had he not been excited about his wife's pregnancy before - although he really, really had been - he most certainly was now.

* * *

 **Sorry for the pretty slow updates! I've been working on my other Bethyl fic A Stranger, A Suitor and I've started another Bethyl story called Once Upon a Dream, too. I'll be trying to update this fic and Untouchable more regularly, I promise.**

 **Thanks for reading and please review!**


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